Friday the 13th is on its way… no, not the movie; the actual date… and if you’re in or near Los Angeles, you’ll be able to see at least one psychopath get messy on the big screen. Read on for a look at CUT!

From the Press Release:Psycho Rock Productions and Dog House Post are proud to announce the “Friday the 13th” opening and week-long engagement of CUT! at the Arena Cinema Hollywood.

CUT!, a twisted psychological thriller which won BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST LEADING ACTOR, and the AWARD of MERIT for AUDIO at the 2014 Independent Film and Television Festival, was named by Movie Rankings as one of the TOP 5 HORROR MOVIES of 2014. The film stars David Banks, Dahlia Salem, Sam Scarber, Allen Maldonado, and Suze Lanier-Bramlett. It was directed by David Rountree.

In CUT! the apparent is never the truth as an ex-con and aspirant filmmaker set out to manufacture a film by scaring people for real; however, when it goes too far and someone actually dies, the pair decide that killing for real on film is the only way to make a truly terrifying movie.

Suze Lanier-Bramlett co-stars in this movie as a follow-up to her smash hit, original cult classics The Hills Have Eyes 1 and 2. This is also a breakthrough performance for comedic actor David Banks, who won Best Leading Actor for his role as the eccentric serial killer Lane Hayes.

Finally, after weeks and weeks of waiting, the mid-season return of “The Walking Dead” takes place on Sunday; and to reward our patience, AMC has released the opening scene of Episode 5.09, “What Happened and What’s Going On.” Check it out right here, and start counting down the days and hours!

“The Walking Dead” Episode 5.09 – “What Happened and What’s Going On” (airs 2/8/15)After all the recent trials the group has faced, a slight detour might prove to be the solution they’ve been looking for.

Know what we want immediately? The Godzilla video game for the PlayStation 4. Unfortunately we’re gonna have to wait until August 31, 2015, when it arrives on next gen and the PlayStation 3. Still, we have some new screens to tide you over.

Godzilla comes from leading video game publisher and developer BANDAI NAMCO Games America Inc. Developed by Japanese video game studio NATSUME ATARI, Godzilla places players in control of one of the most famous and destructive monsters in entertainment history. As Godzilla, players will trample and lay waste to cities and environments with the goal of taking out each area’s Energy Generator while collecting as much G-Energy as possible. The G-Energy can then be used to power-up Godzilla, increasing both his physical size as well as his offensive and defensive skills.

The game will also allow players to utilize a dynamic Movie-Style Camera Angle System, delivering the most epic camera angles from which to destroy both a multitude of locations as well as classic enemies such as Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla.

“Godzilla has had a long history and is one of Japan’s most famous pop culture exports that have entertained millions of people for generations in the West,” said Chris Gilbert, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at BANDAI NAMCO Games America Inc. “We’re excited to continue this great history by bringing the Godzilla video game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 to excited fans. Let the countdown to monstrous destruction and epic battles begin!”

Godzilla will feature multiple game modes including: Mission Mode where players will wreak mayhem through more than 20 different stages of play; a Diorama Mode that allows players to place Godzilla in different settings to capture epic photos; and a King of Monsters Mode where Godzilla must fight his way through the franchises most famous enemies to reach the top of the monster hierarchy and claim the throne as the true King of Monsters.

Currently rated “RP” for Rating Pending by the ESRB, Godzilla will be available in the Americas for the PlayStation®4 system and PlayStation®3 system in summer 2015.

Horror hits like V/H/S and The ABCs of Death have proven that the anthology film format has been revived, and so a new omnibus is afoot for 2015 – assembling the likes of Neil Marshall (The Descent), Darren Bousman (The Devil’s Carnival), and Lucky McKee (The Call) behind their collective cameras.

Epic Pictures Group financed and produced Tales of Halloween, which brings together ten segments from different directors into one unified series of stories, all set in an Anytown, USA, suburb terrorized by ghouls, ghosts, and slashers on one, er, epic Halloween night.

We had a chance to chat with co-directors Andrew Kasch and John Skipp to get the skinny on their super-special segment in the spooky series…

Dread Central: What’s the name of your story, who wrote it, and who is in it?

Andrew Kasch: Our segment is called “This Means War,” and it was an idea I conceived when we were throwing out various pitches. I’m a massive fan of haunted attractions and really wanted to do something in that world. Our first pitch was set in a Christian fundamentalist Hell House, which scared people for a variety of reasons. So we ran with the idea of dueling suburban home haunters, and Skipp came up with the brilliant notion of having it be a generational “old vs. new” clash of horror styles – so we have Dana Gould playing the classy Universal/silent film lover and James Duval as the Rob Zombie gore-loving metalhead.

John Skipp: I rode into horror as part of the splatterpunk wave of the 80s and was immediately swept up in the “loud vs. quiet horror” debate. Which always cracked me up because – while I’m a big fan of deliberately shocking content and overt, crazy-ass imagery – I also love the artistry of atmosphere and mood, subtlety, and suspense in the classic works.

So I came up with Boris and Dante: two guys at very opposite ends of the spectrum, whose yard displays exemplify those extremes. Boris (Dana) does his yard up almost entirely in black-and-white mode, with German expressionist trees and a graveyard/mausoleum set; whereas, Dante (Jimmy) has an explosion of garish color washing over his ramshackle gorehound assembly of mutilated bodies and hot chicks and such.

To me, these are two great tastes that taste great together. And having them fight to the death over which one is “better” struck us as a hilarious way to address this huge rift in the horror community in a way that’s both lampooning and loving. In that sense, we’re trying to do what GALAXYQUEST did with the Star Trek community: showing the absurdity, while embracing the contradictions and having a laugh at ourselves in the process. All in the spirit of fun.

DC: How were you approached to do this project, and what about it made you say ‘Yes’?

AK: The whole thing happened during a dead-celebrity party several of us were at. Axelle, Gierasch, and I were talking about always wanting to do an anthology film, and Axelle tossed out the idea of something Halloween-themed. The three of us met the next morning for coffee and jotted down a wishlist of filmmaker friends. Once our pal Mike Mendez brought on Epic Pictures, it all just snowballed from there. The idea of working with so many people who I respect and the fact that we were given carte blanche to run wild was hugely appealing. The challenge was pulling off an ambitious script on a small budget and two-day shooting schedule, which was pretty grueling.

JS: I totally rode in on Andrew’s tail feathers with this. We’re always dying to create cool new cinematic weirdness. So when the opportunity came up, we jumped.

DC: What were some of the guidelines given to you by producers? What was the most challenging aspect?

AK: The big thing that I think everyone wanted to do was build in connective tissue for the film, which meant throwing in a lot of fun bits with reoccurring characters so that it all feels like one big cohesive movie. For example, you’ll see several main characters from other segments in the background of our scenes. It makes the movie one giant fun Easter Egg hunt!

JS: I ain’t gonna lie. This whole thing has been a tussle from beginning to end, which is what you get with this many master chefs in the kitchen. I’m pretty sure I wrote eight thousand drafts of a 10-page script before Andrew jumped in and helped smooth it all out. But I like what we got and love what we shot.

DC: Dip into your story a little bit, and tell us what we can expect…

AK: We wanted our segment to be fast and fun, while lovingly poking fun at the extreme parts of horror fandom. We’re all opinionated genre geeks who live and breathe this stuff, so crafting a movie where two eccentric fans declare war on each other over their tastes was a chance to take our daily Facebook and Twitter debates to the next level. And our hope is that all horror fans can relate and identify with these guys on some level… cause at the end of the day, they’re both doing it for the love of the game.

JS: Yep! Past that, I think people will have fun with how much we whipped this all into a fucking frenzy. Dana and Jimmy are amazing. Absolutely love what they did. And once the crowd starts gathering to watch these two goofballs slam into each other, the energy blasts off the screen. We had, like, SIXTY PEOPLE lined up on the sidewalk in this nice suburban neighborhood, alternately cheering and cringing at the mayhem unspooling, giving the whole thing a weirdly epic feel far exceeding our modest budget.

Speaking of L.A. theater, we’ve got the stars of both of the greatest H.P. Lovecraft plays ever staged on Earth: Graham Skipper (RE-ANIMATOR: THE MUSICAL) and Frank Blocker (THE CALL OF CTHULHU).

On the literary end, our frequent genius collaborator Cody Goodfellow (REPO SHARK), the brilliant Laura Lee Bahr (HAUNT), and Lisa Morton – president of the HWA (Horror Writers’ Association) and an awesome writer herself – staked out their claim. Our STAY AT HOME DAD star, Alisha Seaton, is there. You won’t see Andy Merrill (the voice of Adult Swim’s THE BRAK SHOW), but he’s there. As is cult director Charles Pinion (RED SPIRIT LAKE) and Brian Bubonic of L.A.’s outsider art-fave, The Hyaena Gallery. The list goes on and on.

Bottom line, though: I think what horror fans will dig most is watching Boris and Dante kick the shit out of each other. Everything else is gravy.

DC: What are some of the upsides of an anthology, as opposed to a feature length one-plot film?

AK: The upside is that you get to cut right to the core of a story without the fat. Way too many horror films don’t have enough ideas to sustain a feature runtime, but when you can make the same statement in a short format, it can be tremendously effective.

JS: I’ve always loved anthologies. Have edited a shitload of ‘em in book form. And what I love most is the diversity of angles of attack. You get a bunch of artists staring at the same thing – in this case, Halloween – and riffing with all their heart and skill at something they care about deeply. It’s the juxtaposition that knocks me out. The fly’s eye view.

Every single writer/director on this thing took their own take on the subject. The result, I suspect, will be a panorama. And I’m deeply excited to see it all cut together into one giant love letter to the horror field and cinema at large.

JS: Mine is Creepshow, flat-out. It’s the only one I watch religiously, every year. The stories don’t take place on the holiday proper, but the setup with the pumpkin in the window totally places us there. And honestly, I’m hoping that Tales of Halloween is gonna become a party favorite for years to come. The movie I’d annually watch, as a tradition, even if I wasn’t part of it. That’s what we’re all shooting for. And dearly hope people love it as much as we do.

DC: What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid? Do you dress up as an adult on the night of 10/31?

AK: I went as a battle-scarred Terminator one year and really freaked out the neighbors. And I haven’t stopped dressing up for Halloween. This year, I was Will Graham from “Hannibal,” and my best friend, Buz, was the Stagman. We were such a cute couple!

JS: Honestly? I loved being a zombie back in the 70s, long before it was popular, mostly because constantly refreshing my head wound with blood kept it nice and shiny. But my favorite Halloween costume ever was going in bloody Goth leather drag, as a grown-up, taking my kids out trick-or-treating. The fact that nobody knew I was a man until I said, in basso-profundo, “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” at the end was hilarious.

Axelle Carolyn created the concept and brought the filmmakers together for this unique production. Tales of Halloween is being produced by Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson of Epic Pictures Group along with Mike Mendez and Axelle Carolyn. Composers Frank Ilfman (Big Bad Wolves) and Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring) are both attached to the project.

Synopsis:Ten stories are woven together by their shared theme of Halloween night in an American suburb, where ghouls, imps, aliens, and axe murderers appear for one night only to terrorize unsuspecting residents.

Continuing our new commitment to begin unboxing some collectibles for you guys to check out, we’ve got something really cool for you today. Just like Somerset and Mills’ special delivery to an open field… you’ll never know “what’s in the box” next!

Up now is a look at NECA Toys’ Terminator Series 1: Endoskeleton Assault Exclusive 7″ Action Figure 2-Pack.

Inspired by the classic video game Robocop vs. The Terminator! Released in late 1993 for the popular 16-bit home console, the game answered the burning question of sci-fi fans worldwide: Which man/machine would win in a fight? The “future of law enforcement” or the actual future?

This special 2-pack includes blue and red versions of the Terminator Endoskeleton with paint deco that re-creates the video game shading. Both figures are exclusive to this set and come complete with plasma rifles.

Another pilot is coming from The CW, and it looks to be one of disastrous proportions. Like literally! Yep, Armageddon will once again put mankind at death’s door with “Cordon.”

According to Deadline “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals”‘ showrunner Julie Plec and director David Nutter will be bringing the series to our televisions. Based upon the original Belgian series created by Carl Joos for Eyeworks, “Cordon” is in the vein of “Under the Dome.”

When a deadly epidemic breaks out in Atlanta, a large city quarantine is quickly enforced, leaving those stuck on the inside to fight for their lives. Loved ones are tragically torn apart, and the society that grows inside the cordon reveals both the devolution of humanity and the birth of unlikely heroes.

Plec wrote the script with Nutter, helmer of the pilots for The CW’s “Arrow” and “The Flash,” directing. The two executive produce for Warner Bros. TV, where they are based; My So-Called Company; and Eyeworks.

With Poker Night (review) getting set to hit Blu-ray and DVD on February 10th, we now have your chance to score an exclusive poster signed by director Greg Francis, star Ron Perlman, and composer Scott Glasgow.

To enter for your chance to win, just send an email to contests@dreadcentral.com including your FULL NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS. We’ll take care of the rest.

Synopsis:In this twisted thriller, a young detective is caught in a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse when he is kidnapped and tormented by a masked serial killer. In order to survive, the rookie must use the wisdom imparted to him by senior detectives on their regular poker night.

A new zombie-infection flick is on its way to the world in the form of Survivors, and right now we have some artwork and stills for you to chew on. Dig in!

From the Press Release:How far would you go to survive? It’s the question at the heart of the upcoming 2015 horror movie Survivors, directed by Adam J. Spinks (Extinction), as these five new stills reveal!

“When we were making the movie, we focused on the need to communicate with other people and our need to relate to them… what are we if we’re left alone?” says director Spinks. “ I wanted to explore that from a realistic perspective.”

Survivors stars Joanne Gale (Red Dwarf, Run FatBoy Run), Simon Burbage (Extinction, Hollyoaks, Pulp: The Movie), Adrian Annis (Art of Darkness, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), David Anderson (3some, How To Live Yours), and Vanessa Mayfield (The One That Got Away).

Survivors is produced by award-winning filmmaker Michael Beddoes with a screenplay by Adam J. Spinks and Laurence Timms. The first full-length trailer for the film is expected to land in March 2015 ahead of an autumn release.

Synopsis:The dead will rise and the infection will spread in Initiative Motion Pictures and Organised Chaos TV and Film’s Survivors. From director Adam J. Spinks comes a story about the depth of courage in the face of an enemy unleashed by our own scientific arrogance.

Word of another Stephen King-penned tale that’s being turned into a film has landed in our inbox so read on for the first details and artwork for the long-form short One for the Road.

From the Press Release:Maine-based production companies Bonfire Films and Dark Farm Films have teamed up to bring the work of author Stephen King back to his home state. This year the two companies will adapt King’s short story “One for the Road,” filming it in the areas that King intended the dark tale to unfold: the Maine towns of Falmouth, Windham, and Cumberland, better known to the literary world as Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot).

Corey Norman, director of the wildly successful independent feature The Hanover House, is set to direct the long-form short film, while Jenny Anastasoff of the Damnationland hit Sui Generis and Haley Norman of The Hanover House are set to produce. Being huge King fans, the group hope to create a true love letter to the work of the author, while showcasing the state that has brought them so much inspiration. Look for the film when it hits festivals later this year.

Synopsis:Based on the short story by Stephen King, One for the Road follows two aging Mainers, Booth and Herb “Tookey” Tooklander, as they attempted to rescue the family of a motorist whose vehicle had become stranded in a ferocious blizzard. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the car just happens to be stranded in Salem’s Lot.

The beautiful and talented Alex Essoe is the breakout star of Starry Eyes. We at Dread Central were so impressed with her work that we just had to sit down and talk with her about her performance so we recently tracked her down to get the skinny on the film.

Since Starry Eyes hits DVD and Blu-ray TODAY, February 3rd, what better time than now to post the results?

Alex(andra) Essoe led off the interview with a real shocker. When asked if Starry Eyes (review here) was her first lead in a feature horror film, she replied, “This is my first lead in anything,” making her performance that much more impressive.

She went on to give a quick description of Starry Eyes for those who didn’t get to see the movie during its festival run. “Oh my goodness. Well, there are plenty of chills and thrills!” Essoe said. “In a nutshell, without giving too much away, it’s essentially about a struggling actress who unwittingly sells her soul to a demonic cult that is masquerading as a big budget movie production studio.”

We asked Essoe to compare the casting directors she’s worked with in her professional life to the ultra-creepy one played by horror veteran Maria Olsen in Starry Eyes. “It really depends,” Essoe said. “I’ve had some casting directors be extremely patient and nurturing and they really give you their undivided attention, and I’ve had casting directors stop filming before I’m even done with the scene.”

One of the more memorable early moments in the movie involves Essoe’s character, Sarah, being asked to throw a fit in front of the casting director and her assistant. It involved her screaming and writhing on the floor. Essoe described what it was like to shoot that particular scene.

“It was really fun,” she said. “It was exhausting. One of the most interesting things to me about acting is the opportunity to explore the unknown as far as human neuroses and demons and all of that. So it was really nice to have an opportunity to get completely lost and to take the reins off and just slip into the abyss and whatever you find there. That’s what it is. That’s the most rewarding part of it for me.”

The damaged psyche of Sarah has a huge part to play in the events that happen to her in Starry Eyes. Essoe discussed the deconstruction of the girl. “I had to be very specific about what Sarah wants, and I found the more fragile I made her and the more insecure and unhinged, the easier it was to inform the other choices she made and where she goes.”

“She’s very much a lone wolf,” Essoe added. “She doesn’t really belong anywhere and she doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere, which is funny, because she’s given opportunities to break that habit with the people around her. They send out these little life rafts to her, and she rejects them because she’s already got this opinion of herself and she has this very romanticized ideal that ‘I’ll finally be happy and fulfilled if this specific thing happens.’ So because she’s such a slave to that ideal, once it’s offered to her, she’s already decided that nothing else will validate her existence except for that. So having that, it was easy to transition to the more devious parts of her. There is a devious side to her and other aspects to her personality. Her quietness and her shyness is more passive-aggressive than it is innocent.”

Throughout Starry Eyes Essoe is asked to do some pretty intense things. We curiously asked if she ever got close to feeling something was too much for her. “No. The more they threw at me, the more I wanted to do it,” Essoe said. “I was just like, ‘Whatever… Let’s just go full-tilt. Let’s see how far down the rabbit hole we can go with this.’ There was never a time where I was like, ‘That’s the line! Sorry, not doing that.’ Because the writing is so good, everything that happens to her is justified and it fits the story, and even the most extreme violence doesn’t feel gratuitous because she really believes that this is her chance to be somebody instead of who she is, which she despises.”

Upon watching Starry Eyes, it’s quite clear that there is a distinct allusion to life as an actor in Hollywood. We asked Essoe to discuss if it’s a fair representation of the life of a thespian. “For all of its extremes, there are a lot of very stark truths to it,” Essoe said. “The everyday struggle of an actor is depicted really well because you get rejected far more than you’re accepted. Rejection and derision and not being taken seriously and that whole ‘Oh, you’re an actor?’ and that look you get when you tell people what you do for a living. That’s all part of it. In that regard I think it’s very realistic. I haven’t encountered the same challenges that Sarah had vis-à-vis the casting couch and having to deal with predators. I haven’t heard of that really happening anymore, but maybe I’m just lucky. It’s more just the slog and the self-doubt and constantly questioning if this is what you really want to do. That, I feel, is well represented.”

For much of the second half of the movie, Essoe is covered in varying degrees of prosthetics and make-up. She talked about working with the effects. “It harkens to that eternal argument of: Do you develop a character from the inside out or the outside in?” Essoe explained. “I happen to think both are equally important. There is something about who Sarah is at the end of the movie (without giving too much away). I did a lot of preparation for it and rehearsed, but once those (costume) fingernails were on, I don’t know what it was, but that one small detail formed the entire trajectory of that chapter of the movie. The prosthetics, especially since they’re so good… when I looked at myself, it was easy for me to believe that that’s what’s happening to me. And that’s important. You have to believe what’s happening to you, or no one else will.” And FYI, Essoe did not shave her head for the role. That being said, kudos to the F/X team because that was one goddamn impressive bald cap!

One look at Essoe in her role as Sarah, especially in the hot pants uniform of the Big Taters restaurant she works in when not auditioning, shows the actress keeps herself in amazing shape. We asked if she did anything extra to prepare for the role physically. “I didn’t,” said Essoe. “I didn’t necessarily want to be in peak physical condition because I wanted it to wear on me and I wanted to be exhausted and I wanted to empty the tanks. So I kept all the physicality within the actual shooting, and outside of that, I was mostly a body at rest.”

So she didn’t feel the need to spend any extra time preparing her body for the role, but she certainly took a very professional approach and prepared herself mentally for the challenge. “I take a very pragmatic approach to character and story; I wanted to see a beginning, a middle, and an end,” Essoe said. “You create a mask for yourself, and then you forget about it when you get to set. You trust that it’s there, and you find new things and incorporate those. I wouldn’t say it was difficult necessarily on the day because I had already done my homework beforehand. And I love that stuff. I love the theme of transformation, and I love incorporating physicality and metamorphosis. Maybe it would be hard if I didn’t enjoy it so much.”

From the producer of Cheap Thrills and Jodorowsky’s Dune, Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch’s Starry Eyes is an occult tale of ambition, possession, and the true cost of fame. Special features on the Blu-ray and DVD include commentary with writer-directors Kolsch and Widmyer (who previously teamed on Absence) and producer Travis Stevens; 10 deleted scenes; a music video by the film’s composer, Jonathan Snipes; Alex Essoe’s audition video; a behind-the-scenes photo gallery; and the theatrical trailer.

Synopsis:Determined to make it as an actress in Hollywood, Sarah Walker (Alex Essoe) spends her days working a dead-end job, enduring petty friendships with other struggling artists and competing actors, and going on countless casting calls in hopes of catching her big break. After a series of strange auditions, Sarah lands the leading role in a film from a mysterious production company. But this opportunity comes with some bizarre conditions that will transform her both mentally and physically into something beautiful… and altogether terrifying.